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How The Right Lighting Can Transform Your Event

The Science Behind The Light

Before exploring the different types of event lighting, let’s try to understand the fundamental principles involved. We are very visual creatures and rely heavily on what we see as a way to interpret our surroundings. This is why light can be useful in influencing human perception and emotion.

Warm colours (reds, oranges, yellows) tend to evoke feelings of comfort, energy and excitement, making these colours deal for social gatherings, festive occasions, and creating lively and energetic atmospheres. Cool colours such as blues, greens and purples, on the other hand, often help to convey professionalism, calmness, and sophistication. Making them suitable for things like corporate presentations or exhibitions.

Beyond just colours, the intensity, direction, and movement of light also significantly contributes to its effective use. Bright, even lighting can create an energetic and open atmosphere, while dramatic shadows and focused spotlights can build suspense, highlight key elements, or create a sense of intimacy. Dynamic lighting sequences, where changes in colour, intensity, or position, are useful for guiding attention, punctuating musical or visual cues, and implementing transitions.

6 Benefits Of Good Event Lighting

Good lighting can be used to define the overall mood and feel of an event space and enhance engagement. Lighting creates a valuable first impression that sets the tone for the entire event, before it’s even underway, and beyond the obvious aesthetics, strategic lighting can be used to actively engage event guests, ensuring a memorable and enjoyable experience all around. Here are the top 6 benefits of proper event lighting.

1. Sets The Mood. From the moment guests walk in, lighting has an effect on their emotional response. A dimly lit, warm-toned space with soft uplighting might evoke a sense of intimacy and sophistication, while vibrant, rapidly changing colours and strobes would instantly ignite excitement and party vibes.
2. Defines Spaces. Lighting can be used to segment a large venue into distinct areas, each with its own purpose, aiding in managing the flow within an event. For example, a brightly lit stage commands attention, while a softer, more ambient glow in a lounge area encourages conversation and relaxation.
3. Theme Enhancement. Whether it’s a roaring music concert, a futuristic tech conference, or a magical fairy-tale wedding, lighting is one of the most important elements in reinforcing the chosen theme.
4. Guides Attention. Lighting can be used to point guests in the right direction, highlighting certain aspects at different times. For example, bright spotlights on a speaker or performer draws the eye and attention, ensuring key elements are not missed or are missed as the case may be.
5. Creates Drama! Dramatic shifts in lighting positions, speed or colour, such as a blackout followed by a single spotlight on a performer, helps build anticipation and create unforgettable moments, adding an element of theatrical suspense!
6. Encourages Interaction. Interactive lighting installations, such as touch-sensitive LED panels or projected games, can directly engage guests, turning passive observation into active participation.

Types Of Event Lighting

You might think lighting is just lighting, but the truth is there are a lot of different lighting types – each with their own strengths and ideal purpose. Here are the main broad classifications used for event lighting purposes.

1. Generic Lighting

These are what you might call conventional or foundational lights. They are often used for general washes or focused illumination. Some examples are:

• Fresnels: Produce a soft-edged, controllable beam, often used for general stage washes or highlighting areas.
• Par Cans: Parabolic Aluminised Reflectors produce a powerful, less controllable beam. Often used for coloured washes or accent lighting.
• Ellipsoidals: (Lekos/Source Fours) Offer precise control over the beam shape and can project gobos (projected images). Ideal for sharp spotlights, pattern projection, and highlighting specific elements.
• Followspots: Manually operated spotlights that “follow” a performer/s.

2. LED Lighting

LEDs have revolutionised event lighting due to their efficiency, versatility, and compact size. LEDs consume significantly less power than traditional lights, reducing heat output and running costs. They also have a much longer lifespan and low heat output making them safer and easier to manage in enclosed spaces.

Modern LEDs can produce millions of colours by mixing red, green, blue, and sometimes white, amber, or UV (ultraviolet) elements. This allows for instant colour changes and dynamic washes. Some examples of colour mixing LEDs might include RGBW/RGBAL/RGBWA+UV classifications. LEDs are used for everything from uplighting walls and architectural features, stage washes, LED video panels, to individual pixel mapping.

3. Intelligent/Moving Head Lighting

These types of lights are more sophisticated fixtures that can pan (move horizontally) and tilt (move vertically), while often offering a range of additional effects such as shutters (for strobing), prisms (to multiply beams), frost filters (to soften edges), and colour wheels.

Intelligent lighting options might include:

• Wash Lights: These produce a soft, wide beam of light, ideal for colouring large areas or stages.
• Spot Lights: Producing a tighter, more focused beam, capable of projecting gobos, creating sharp effects, and highlighting specific points.
• Beam Lights: Best for producing extremely narrow, intense beams, often used for aerial effects, creating powerful shafts of light that cut through fog.

Intelligent lighting brings the added benefits of dynamic movement, rapid colour changes, and complex visual sequences to an event, and is particularly favoured for concerts, dance and high-energy productions.

4. Special Effects Lighting

Designed to create unique visual moments and immersive experiences, effects lighting are all about the action! Some common examples are:

• Strobe Lights: Producing rapid flashes of light, creating a stop-motion or slow-motion effect, strobe lights are often used for high-energy segments or dramatic accents.
• Blinders: These are high-intensity lights that are designed to momentarily “blind” (or create a wall of light) that is typically used in concerts to create more dramatic impact.
• Lasers: Projecting sharp, intense beams or patterns, lasers are used for aerial effects, abstract projections, and even text and graphics.
• UV/Blacklights: Emitting ultraviolet light, causing fluorescent materials to glow, UV lights create a unique and often ethereal atmosphere.
• Hazers/Fog Machines: While technically not just lights, these two produce atmospheric effects (mist/fog) that reveal light beams and add depth to the visual landscape.

5. Pixel Lighting/Video Mapping

The cutting edge of visual integration, pixel lighting treats light sources as individual “pixels” to display video content. Pixel tubes or strips allow individual LED lights to be arranged in linear or custom configurations, each controllable as a pixel, creating low-resolution video displays or dynamic patterns. LED video walls/panels are made of numerous LED modules, capable of displaying high-resolution video content, graphics, and live feeds.

And video mapping (projection mapping) gives us the means to project video content onto irregular 3D surfaces (buildings, stage sets, objects) to create dynamic and immersive visual illusions.

Pixel lighting creates truly immersive environments, allowing for seamless integration of branding, abstract art, or live visualisers that respond to music.

6. Architectural Lighting

Specific architectural lighting techniques are brought into event spaces to enhance existing features or create new ones. Applications might include; Uplighting (placing lights at the base of walls, columns, or drapes to project light upwards, adding depth and colour to the space), Wash Lighting (broad, even illumination of large surfaces to change the overall colour of a room), and Pinspotting (using narrow, focused beams to highlight centrepieces, food stations, or other small details).

Lighting Control Devices And Requirements

Modern event lighting demands equally advanced control systems. Some of the more common elements used in the control and execution of lighting for events are:

• DMX (Digital Multiplex). The industry standard DMX512 is the universal communication protocol for virtually all professional stage and event lighting fixtures. Each fixture or parameter (e.g., colour, pan, tilt, and intensity) is assigned a DMX channel. A single DMX universe controls up to 512 channels. Large events often require multiple universes. Traditionally uses 3-pin or 5-pin XLR cables for data transmission.
• Lighting Consoles/Boards. Basic manual consoles with faders and buttons for direct control of lights are often used for smaller events or simpler setups. Computer-based consoles or software running on a computer (e.g., GrandMA, Hog, Avolites, Chamsys) with a dedicated hardware interface offer more complex cues, sequences, effects, and integration with other systems. Some of the key features of lighting consoles are scene programming, cue stacking, effects generators, submasters, touchscreens, and compatibility with various networking protocols.
• Networking Protocols. For larger, more complex systems, traditional DMX cabling becomes impractical. This is where Art-Net/sACN protocols that allow DMX data to be transmitted over standard Ethernet networks come in, enabling much larger numbers of fixtures and universes to be controlled from a single point.
• Power Distribution And Requirements. Often the most overlooked yet critical aspect of any lighting set-up, events must have power! Insufficient or improperly distributed power can lead to equipment failure, safety hazards, and event disruptions. Professional distribution boxes with circuit breakers, phase balancing, and various outlets are essential for safely managing power loads. Load calculations will be required from expert electricians and lighting designers to calculate the power draw of every fixture and device to ensure the available power supply is adequate and safely distributed across different phases.

Lighting Design Engineers And Consultancy Services

Getting the right lighting equipment is only half the battle. Lighting design and the ability to execute a vision are where the real magic is! For best results, hiring professional lighting designers and operators who use CAD pre-visualisation techniques is going to get you there.

Experienced lighting designers are experts at understanding the client’s objectives, the event’s purpose, target audience, and desired mood. They are able to carry out a comprehensive venue assessment, analysing the physical space, existing architectural features, power availability, rigging points and any potential challenges.

Working closely with sound engineers, video technicians, stage managers, and performers to ensure seamless integration, event lighting specialists are able to meticulously program cues and sequences that align with music, speeches, and visual content. Using their expertise with light they can enhance the narrative of the event, guide the audience through different emotions and key moments (and address any unexpected technical issues!).

Event lighting is an indispensable element of any successful event. It is the driving force that defines the character of the venue and breathes life into every moment. It transforms mere space into an experience, passively observed moments into actively engaged memories, and ultimately, elevates every event! Need lighting, sound or visuals for your next event? Give Technical Event Solutions a call today to discuss your requirements.